Movies: Past, present and future

Katherine Heigl in 'Life as We Know It': 'That was life imitating art'

October 7, 2010 | 12:00pm

In the new romantic comedy "Life as We Know It" Katherine Heigl plays Holly, the somewhat tightly wound owner of an Atlanta bakery who gains joint custody of her best friends' infant daughter in the wake of a tragic car accident. The romance enters the picture courtesy of Josh Duhamel's hunky Messer, who's set up to be baby Sophie's surrogate dad. (In the film, triplets Alexis, Brynn and Brooke Clagett play Sophie.)

Speaking by phone this week, Heigl said she was definitely able to draw on her own personal experience for the part, having adopted a baby girl at almost the same time the movie was in production. "I watch certain scenes and think, God, that is so born out of my experience with my own child," the actress said. Heigl and her husband, Josh Kelley, adopted their daughter from South Korea last September.

She said director Greg Berlanti, the television veteran known for such dramas as "Everwood" and "Brothers and Sisters," helped her use those real-life moments to improve her performance in the movie, which she also produced.

"It was hard for me to get my mind focused when I was thinking about this baby all the time and trying to figure out what I was doing," Heigl said. "He was really patient and he would help me to use the energy I was feeling to bring it to the character. I've seen [the movie] twice now and there are moments in particular where she's freaking out, or not freaking out necessarily but getting really adamant with Josh's character about we need to do this, we need to do that. I had literally walked from my trailer saying the same stuff to my own husband onto the set to say it to Josh. That was life imitating art."